Disclaimer: Don't own Les Mis blah blah blah

Chapter 2:

Eponine managed to control her emotions enough that Matthius could not see her disappointment that the man was not who she had hope it would be. "A surgeon has already removed the bullets and the worse of the wounds have been sewn shut." The gentleman relayed to her. "You know this man" he watched her closely "Enjolras you called him" Eponine swallowed and nodded her head slowly "He is Enjolras, leader of the revolutionaries..." She took a shy step forward and reached out to brush some of the blood stained blond hair out of Enjolras's handsome face. Her heart thudded in her chest My Marius...

"I-I have to go!" she fled from the room, and soon afterwards she was running down the streets of Paris toward to barricade. She had to see with her own eyes that Marius was dead. Eponine never realized how difficult it was to run in a skirt, she fell a few times in the mud before she discovered the art of lifting up her skirts, and this still proved to be rather trying as she was wearing a low healed boot. Eponone made it to the barricade which she climbed over, in the process ripping the skirt of the dress.

She was startled once she was over the barricade, an array of bodies scattered all along the street. Eponine thoroughly searched the bodies, her hand covering her mouth to stifle her sobs. Her breath caught in her throat as she came across the body of little Gavroche, her brother. She searched everyone, and no Marius could be found. She came across a pair of body looters, picking the pockets of the dead students. Eponine had to swallow her anger, these were her friends that they were looting.

"Hello...do you know if there were any survivors?" she asked quietly at first and they did not seem to hear her. Eponine you are strong, don't let this tragedy change you She squared her shoulders "Hey! Did you see any survivors?" a dirty looking old man addressed her "Seen two, dunno if they be alive now though" Two? Marius could be one of them "One was carried off by a big man, strong as an ox he was. Genteel bred I thing. That was right after the last fight." Hope came to Eponine. "Another man came by, he had a doctor wiff 'em. They carried off another man who looked to be in much worse shape than the other"

"Thank you, thank you!" She handed the man the very money Cosette's father had paid her for delivering the letter. Cosette's father... The thought struck her. He was a large man, if he had read the letter perhaps. Perhaps...

Eponine returned to the house and she looked like a mess. Agathe fussed over her lecturing the young girl and in the end forced Eponine to take another bath. "Monsieur De Sauveterre wants me to take your measurements miss. Going to get you some dresses he is. 'O course you'll need some growing room, you're too skinny. Don't worry about that deary, we'll get some meat on your bones in no time." Agathe was running a brush through her hair as she soaked in a bath. "Monsieur De Sauveterre is a kind man. You right lot like his little Adele, had she been grown up. Poor deary died of the fever and right afterwards the missus passed on as well. Devastated Monsieur De Sauveterre that it did" She added lilac scented oils to the water and a bit more hot water.

"He's taken a liking to you no doubt because you remind him of his little girl." Agathe forced Eponine to dip her head into the water so that she could wash her hair. "Such pretty 'air, never would 'ave known under all that grime" Eponine remained silent as Agathe spoke, her thoughts were filled of the possibilities of her Marius being alive. He was probably under the care of Cosette, which bothered her immensely.

Agathe finished washing her hair and pulled the plug on the tub. Eponine stood and allowed the woman to dry her off and help her into a thin dressing gown. Eponine was shown to a large room that she supposed would be her room. "Take a seat deary and I will find another dress for you to change into...but please miss, don't be getting this one dirty" Eponine took a seat at the end of a huge bed. The room was decorated in light blue and white, with floral patterns. Agathe returned a few moments later with a long sleeved cream colored muslin dress with a faint blue floral pattern on it.

"Be gentle with this garment, it belonged to the Missus'" Eponine nodded as she ran her fingers over the material. Agathe helped her dress and pinned her hair up, she helped Eponine into the matching cream colored boots and laced them up. "It's a miracle that you are so close in size to the missus" Eponine stood and finally surveyed herself in the mirror and did not recognize herself in the slightest. "Monseiur De Sauveterre requests your presence down in the sitting room" Eponine looked around at all the fine things in the house as they headed down to the sitting room, oddly enough it hadn't even crossed her mind of taking any of the valuable items.

She could probably feed herself for months from the money she could get off of just one tiny china saucer. They finally descended the staircase and she was shown to the drawing room. Matthius stood abruptly and smiled widely at Eponine in a way that made her feel instantly shy. "Please have a seat" he spoke softly and gestured to the seat opposite him. Eponine sat down in the small chair opposite him and Mattius took his seat again. "Care for some tea?" he offered her a tiny white cup with pink roses hand painted delicately on the outside and the only thing Eponine could think of was Cosette probably has tiny teacups like this, how would it feel in my rough hands. She shook her head no claiming that she was not thirsty.

"The young man in the other room, do you know him well?" Eponine looked up from her hands and gave a little shrug "Not really Monsieur. Monsieur Marius always went to listen to him speak about the revolution and Patria..." She in all honesty had not paid attention to much else other than her dear Marius. She found herself studying the others the rare times Marius was not there, just enough to know little quirks about them, their character and stature amongst the group. In those short moments she found that Enjolras was the king of their little society.

"Monsieur Marius Pontmercy?" Matthius asked with a curious tone. Eponine's eyes gave it all away, Matthius guessed her feelings for him. Eponine was very bad at concealing her feelings for him. "Mademoiselle Eponine, I did not see Monsieur Marius amongst the fallen at the barricade" he sipped some tea and settled back in his chair a little "How do you know M. Pontmercy? May I ask?" he watched her carefully. Eponine stumbled over her words a bit "H-He's a good friend of mine." Matthius was no idiot, he knew the young girls background to an extent and he saw the look of pain and adoration in her eyes whenever Marius's name was mentioned. He therefore did not ask anymore questions.

They had a quiet dinner together and then retired for the night, the next day Matthius would have the physician train Eponine on the basics of nursing. Eponine felt suffocated in the soft cotton nightgown she wore. She fell into a fitful slumber.

The next few days flew by quite quickly. Enjolras's condition did not worsen, there were a few mights that he had a high fever and Eponine had to stay up with him to make sure it did not worsen. The man with the angelic face did not wake up once through this whole ordeal. He did not wake at all until the 4th day. Eponine was sitting by his bedside, bathing his forehead with a damp towel when Enjolras's eyes slowly fluttered opened. "Grantaire..." he mumbled out. His eyes seemed to focus after a moment and he looked up into Eponine's emerald eyes in confusion and disbelief.

AN: R&R please